PTTF recommends against federal regulation of carbon dioxide network

Christopher E. SmithOGJ Pipeline Editor

HOUSTON, Feb. 7 -- The Pipeline Transportation Task Force’s (PTTF) research into options for a future national US carbon dioxide pipeline system found the current state-based regulatory system sufficient to handle CO2 transportation needs for the foreseeable future. PTTF presented the findings in its final report, “A Policy, Legal, and Regulatory Evaluation of the Feasibility of a National Pipeline Infrastructure for the Transport and Storage of Carbon Dioxide.”

The report noted that in response to demand for CO2 for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and other uses, the private sector had successfully constructed and is operating about 4,000 miles of CO2 pipelines in the US, before recommending the status quo model of private sector pipeline development and state regulation be continued. The report explicitly stated that “no federal role is required in order to develop CO2 pipeline projects.”

It said, “The assumption that a federal mandate will produce the desired result (capture, transportation, and storage of nationally produced CO2) may not follow. Other state-based regulatory solutions should be carefully considered before pursuit of an untested federal strategy that could prove harmful to future CO2 pipeline construction.”

The report also urged care be taken to ensure pipelines transporting CO2 for storage-only purposes are not viewed less favorably by the public then pipelines transporting CO2 for EOR.

The Interstate Oil & Gas Compact Commission and the Southern States Energy Board assembled regulators, policymakers, and industry representatives to form PTTF. The PTTF study focused on identifying various pipeline regulatory and business development models and the opportunities and difficulties associated with each of them.